The Game
'' |image= |series= |production=40275-206 |producer(s)= |story=Susan Sackett Fred Bronson Brannon Braga |script=Brannon Braga |director=Corey Allen |imdbref=tt0708798 |guests=Ashley Judd as Robin Lefler, Katherine Moffat as Etana Jol, Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien, Patti Yasutake as Alyssa Ogawa, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, Diane M. Hurley as Woman, Majel Barrett as Computer voice |previous_production=Disaster |next_production=Unification Part 2 |episode=TNG S05E06 |airdate=28 October 1991 |previous_release=Disaster |next_release=Unification Part 1 |story_date(s)=Stardates 45208.2-45212.1 (2368) |previous_story=Disaster |next_story=Unification Part 1 }} =Summary= During his first visit back aboard since entering the Academy, Wesley Crusher falls for a young engineering ensign, Robin Lefler, while the rest of the crew seem to fall for a new interactive video game that is worn over the eyes, like antique eyeglasses, and rewards the player with a pleasurable sensation. Riker has brought the game back from his latest trip to Risa, and it proves so popular that Wesley and Robin begin to get the creeps. It seems as if the others are playing it all the time – and indeed they are. Sensor scans show that the game induces a chemical release in the brain, that leads to psychological addiction, and interrupts higher reasoning processes. All of the crew are affected except Data, who was mysteriously 'injured' shortly after Riker brought the game on board. Wesley and Robin find the android, but cannot reactivate him. They decide to fake addiction to avoid suspicion. Shortly afterwards Etana Jol, Riker's 'date' on Risa, appears. She has passed on the game as part of a plan to conquer the Federation one starship at a time. She now orders an all too compliant crew to begin distributing the game to other vessels. The crew soon catches onto Wesley and Robin's deception. They capture and convert Robin, who tells them where to find Wesley. As they are about to force him to play the game, Data emerges carrying a neuro-optic burst device. It's flash reverses the game's effects, robbing Etana of her would be foot soldiers just in time. =Errors and Explanations= Plot Oversights # La Forge not mentioning Crusher requesting Data to come to Sick Bay. Maybe he is also affected by the game at this point. # Lefler not warning the others about Wes attempting to repair the damage to Data. She may think he was unable to carry out the repairs. Equipment Oddities # The game affecting everybody in the same manner. It is very advanced, and is possibly designed to adapt to the species of the user. Nit Central # Dave on Tuesday, July 24, 2001 - 7:52 pm: I was suprised that Geordi was also affected by this game. When someone puts on the headset and activates it, it shoots a laserlike beam into each eye. This is evidently how the games psycho affects reach the brain. However Geordi does not see with regular eyes. Wouldn't his VISOR filter out this game? Not necessarily. The VISOR is designed to mimic natural vision # Freya Lorelei on Saturday, March 16, 2002 - 8:32 pm: I kept noticing that Data's eyes changed position whenever anyone visited him lying on the table. Crusher shuts him down. His eyes are wide open. Crew comes in. Eyes are wide open. Crew leaves. The next time he's shown, his eyes are half-closed. And shortly afterwards, his eyes are closed all the way. Now, if he's been deactivated, how is it possible for him to move his eyelids? He's completely off! ScottN on Saturday, March 16, 2002 - 9:07 pm: Slow acting capacitor closes the eyes? kerriem on Sunday, March 17, 2002 - 11:03 am: Maybe his eyelids operate on the same unsettling principle as those 'She Really Naps!' dolls! ' # ''Keith Alan Morgan (Kmorgan) on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 - 5:44 am: This game seems to be incredibly dull and how exactly are the players supposed to work the controls? '''I think it's done by eye movement. # If this cluster is so scientifically important, then why is only one ship being sent to examine it? Maybe that was all that could be spared at the time. # I found it amazing that after days of intensive, chemical brainwashing, Data is able to free them with a few seconds of a flashing light. Considering that the chemical balance of their brains were affected, the crew returned to normal remarkably easily. (Maybe we should try the same thing with drug addicts?) At the very least the crew should be subjected to regular treatments of flashing until the chemical balance of their brains is back to normal.. Perhaps the addictive effects of the game start to wear off when the game is not being played. # My dad's opinion on this episode was that since the crew was under the influence of a foreign power they would be immediately relieved of duty. Zul on Monday, June 03, 2002 - 1:40 pm: What do you mean immediately relieved of duty if they were under the influence of a foreign power? Who would relieve them? # Hammer on Sunday, June 02, 2002 - 9:41 pm: Obviously Picard is a closet video game junkie, that is the only way to explain him using this device. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, June 03, 2002 - 2:28 pm: No explanation is required for Picard playing the game. It's not like he's the kind of person who will never try anything new, and if someone close to him convinced him to try it, like Beverly or Guinan, he might do so. Worf? Riker could've goaded he into playing it by appealing to his sense of a challenge. The fact that people one would normally not think would try it simply speaks to the addictive power of it, IMO. ''Rene on Monday, June 03, 2002 - 2:41 pm: But that doesn't explain the FIRST time someone plays the game. LUIGI NOVI on Monday, June 03, 2002 - 8:30 pm: Etana Jol got Riker to play while they were fooling around on Risa. Riker got Troi and his close friends to play it when he returned to the Enterprise. # Zul on Thursday, June 06, 2002 - 12:28 am: How would Starfleet know they were under a foreign power? If Wesley hadn't reactivated Data, how would they know? KAM on Friday, June 07, 2002 - 6:19 am: Zul, clearly there is some confusion about the line I wrote. The meaning was that after Data restored them and Starfleet found out what had happened the crew would be relieved of duty. At the very least, Starfleet would want to make sure there were no long lasting repercussions from the incident. It would be irresponsible of Starfleet to allow the crew of a powerful starship to continue flying around when there might be a possibility that the conditioning to accept another's orders might still be in place. Not to mention the possible repercussions of the addiction to the game. Rene on Friday, June 07, 2002 - 10:36 am: Who says they weren't given full examinations to determine if the effects of the game were completely undone? HTI-Sal on Thursday, June 13, 2002 - 6:31 pm: Rene, I understand KAM's point completely now and how Zul may have been confused by his original point. KAM on Friday, June 14, 2002 - 6:46 am: Yeah, rereading my original line I can see how someone could think I was saying they would be relieved of duty while under the influence which wasn't what I meant, but my sentence wasn't as clear as it should have been. # John A. Lang on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 8:47 pm: Why didn't Beverly notice the hypnotic effect of the game before she tried it? I mean, she saw the junkies from Symbiosis getting "high" and noticed it. LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, November 12, 2002 - 9:35 pm: Riker probably gave it to her the minute he came back from Risa, just as he did Troi. If Crusher was one of the very first to get it (which makes sense, since the smart thing for Riker to do would be to get the command crew under its influence before everyone else), there wouldn't be anyone else under its influence for her to notice. # Anonymous on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 2:17 am: Curious that Wesley is the only one on board that was interested in the device's operation. You'd think Geordi, or a few engineers would test it first. ScottN on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 9:27 am: Why? According to Riker, it's just a cool game. If your buddy came back from vacation and said, "Check out this cool thing I got on my trip!", would you do an engineering breakdown on it? Wesley only became suspicious because his mom was acting weird. LUIGI NOVI on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 8:27 am: And also because everyone on board was so into it. # SlinkyJ on Friday, July 18, 2003 - 10:12 pm: I think there is a scene missing, or something to that effect. Watching the scene again, of Wesley forced into the game, and the bridge lights going dark and Data comes onto the bridge flashing those lights to 'cure' the others, I didn't seem him flash the people in the background. I remember crew milling about on the higher deck, at their controls, but I don't remember seeing Data flashing them to 'cure' them. My point here being, once he was done flashing 'the important people', he brought back the lights, and all was well. The scene I think that was missing, those crewmembers in the background jumping Data, since he didn't flash them. I mean, Wesley and Robin did say, apart from themselves and Data, everyone else was into the game. What kept the background crewmembers from fighting Data? Were they duped too much? The flash effect could have reached the background crewmembers as well. # Francois Lacombe (Franc0is) on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 2:37 pm: When Riker tells Troi about the game he brought back from Risa, shouldn't her empathic powers let her sense that his intentions in making this offer were anything but benign? '''Andre Reichenbacher (Amr) on Wednesday, February 13, 2013 - 5:24 pm: Yeah, probably, but remember what Phil said about Trek in general? It basically had too many ways to avoid problems. This was merely another example of the script convienently forgetting a capability of either the ship or crew members so that a crisis could continue. If Troi could have sensed Riker's intentions from the beginning, as he had been manipulated by the alien woman's charms as well as the psychotropic (or whatever) effects from the game she got him hooked on, it would not have spread and "infected" the crew the way it did, and there would have been no show! ''' Category:Episodes Category:The Next Generation